England and Wales lead way on synod survey

Bishops in England and Wales have launched an extensive consultation on issues including same-sex marriage, contraception and Communion for divorced and remarried couples.

The hierarchy has widely distributed a Vatican questionnaire on these topics, part of preparations for next year’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family, which will be attended by the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.

The questions cover some of the most contentious issues in the Church including the kinds of questions divorced and remarried couples ask about the sacraments, what pastoral attention can be given to people who are in same-sex partnerships, and whether church teaching against contraception is “accepted”.

The bishops have put the survey online and individual dioceses are being asked to ­distribute the questions as widely as possible. The online survey is being run centrally by the bishops’ conference and answers are being forwarded to the relevant dioceses.  
It appears that the English and Welsh hierarchy are the only bishops’ conference so far to have disseminated the questionnaire in such a way. It is understood that 600 people have already filled out all or part of the questionnaire. According to a letter to clergy from Archbishop Nichols, responses to the survey questions are required by 6 December. He added that the bishops’ conference will send in one collated response by the end of January 2014. Edmund Adamus, the director of the department for pastoral affairs for the Archdiocese of Westminster, who is collating responses for the diocese, said he thought the Vatican was happy to hear what people had to say “warts and all”.

Questions have also been raised about the intelligibility of parts of the questionnaire. Elizabeth Davies, the Marriage and Family Life project officer who is overseeing the survey at the bishops’ conference, is preparing a supplementary guide to the questionnaire as well as a glossary of terms. Mr Adamus said they wanted to say to people “please do not feel that you have to answer every question, home in on the question that matters to you most and concentrate on that and make that your two-pennyworth.”

The survey can be found at www.surveymonkey.com/s/FamilySynod2014